VCs of the First World War Gallipoli

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VCs of the First World War Gallipoli Page 32

by Stephen Snelling


  Alfred Victor Smith was born in Guildford, Surrey, on 22 July 1891, the only son of William Henry Smith and Louisa (née Green). His father had served seven years in the 11th Hussars, taking part in the Gordon Relief Expedition of 1884–5, before joining the Police Force, in which he rose to the rank of chief constable of St Albans, in Hertfordshire. Victor Smith (his first christian name appears to have been rarely used) was educated at Hatfield Road School, St Albans. He possessed a fine singing voice and was a chorister and tenor soloist at St Albans Cathedral before the family moved to Burnley, Lancashire in 1905, on his father’s appointment as chief constable of the northern town. Continuing his education at Burnley Grammar School, Victor became a Sunday School worker. He left school aged eighteen and spent eighteen months working at the town’s new Labour Bureau before deciding to join the police.

  Victor Smith became a member of the Blackpool force, whose chief constable was a friend of his father. Promotion quickly followed. From acting-inspector, he became an inspector, working in the weights and measures department. Miss Winifred Pringle, daughter of Blackpool’s chief constable, recalled: ‘Victor was a fresh-faced, good-living young man. He was a kindly chap and so full of fun, and popular with the men.’ She remembered him working in the weights and measures office:

  I can see him now with his sleeves rolled up and laughing. He used to ladle out molten lead and splash it onto the stone-flagged floor and it made funny shapes. He did it to amuse me and the other children. My father said that Victor was very bright and would certainly have had a fine police career.

  His noted singing voice made him a popular performer in local operatic societies and concerts. He was also a keen swimmer and gymnast and, with other policemen, a member of the seaside resort’s fire brigade and life-saving squad. During a royal visit to Blackpool, the young police inspector, noted for his ‘exceptional smartness and ability’, served as his chief constable’s orderly. His future success seemed assured. Then came the war.

  Victor Smith was one of the first to volunteer for active service. On 10 October 1914 he was gazetted as second lieutenant to the 2/5th East Lancashire Regiment. He served at the Burnley depot and at Southport before volunteering, with four more officers, to join a reinforcements draft for the 1/5th East Lancashires, then in Egypt. He arrived in Port Said on 11 April 1915, and after a course in Cairo he joined the battalion on 4 May. Four days later, the unit sailed as part of the 42nd East Lancashire Division for Gallipoli, going ashore at Cape Helles on 13 May. Together with several other officers from the newly arrived division, Smith was attached to a unit of the 29th Division as a means of gaining combat experience and filling gaps. During his early days on the peninsula, he saw fighting with the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the King’s Own Scottish Borderers.

  At the end of July he was evacuated to Alexandria, suffering from a bout of dysentery. A spell of convalescence followed in Cyprus before he sailed for Mudros, where he underwent a course in bombing, a form of warfare still new to many of the troops on the peninsula. Gaining first-class passes, he was appointed brigade bombing officer, a post which took him back to his unit at Cape Helles. There, his popularity and optimism in the face of great adversity helped lift morale. Years afterwards, one veteran would remember him leading them in a ‘sing-song’ on Gully Beach after coming out of the line.

  Throughout the fighting and the harsh autumn weather, Smith’s own morale appears never to have flagged. At a time when most men’s thoughts were turning to evacuation, he was to be found risking his life on patrols and bombing operations. It was little wonder that he was held in such awe by his men. Ingham Ridehalgh, his bombing sergeant and himself a veteran of Omdurman, said of him: ‘I, or any of the men, would have followed “Vic” anywhere. He was like one of us, and a better officer I never saw.’

  The telegram announcing Victor Smith’s death arrived at his parents’ home in Burnley less than two hours after his postcard wishing them a happy Christmas. Almost a year to the day after their son’s final gallant gesture, William and Louisa Smith went to Buckingham Palace to receive the Victoria Cross. A few days before, a portrait of the young VC winner by the artist John Cooke was unveiled amid much civic pomp in Burnley. Today the painting is still displayed in the Towneley Hall Museum, together with his VC and Croix de Guerre, posthumously awarded by the President of France. Other memorials to the Gallipoli Campaign’s last VC can be found in St Albans Cathedral, St Catherine’s Church, Burnley, and St John’s Parish Church, Blackpool. The magnificent bronze tablet on the wall of St John’s Church features a likeness of Victor Smith, between impressions of his two gallantry awards, with the inscription, which serves as a fitting epitaph:

  In Remembrance

  Of a gallant soldier one in

  heart and ever loyal to duty

  A VICTOR SMITH VC

  Lieutenant 5th Batt East Lancashire

  Regiment, Inspector of the Blackpool

  Police, this memorial is dedicated

  Less than 25 years but crowned with

  the love than which no Man hath greater

  in the words of his commanding officer

  HE GAVE HIS LIFE TO SAVE OTHERS

  at

  Fusilier Bluff Gallipoli Peninsula

  December 23rd, 1915

  By throwing himself upon a live

  grenade and was awarded the

  Victoria Cross and the Croix de Guerre

  for this magnificent act of self

  sacrifice which saved many lives.

  SOURCES

  The sources used in the preparation of this book include the following:

  The Lummis VC files at the National Army Museum, London

  The Victoria Cross files at the Imperial War Museum, London

  The Public Record Office, Kew, Surrey

  Regimental Museums and Archives

  The London Gazette 1914–20 (HMSO)

  E.G. Robinson

  Dardanelles Details, Naval Review 24, Capt. B.H. Smith, 1936

  Dardanelles Dilemma, E.K. Chatterton, Rich & Cowan, 1935

  Britain’s Sea Soldiers, A History of the Royal Marines, 1914–1919, Gen. Sir H.E. Blumberg

  Operations in the Dardanelles, Reports on Minesweeping, (PRO)

  The Times

  C. Bromley, R.R. Willis, A.J. Richards, F.E. Stubbs, J.E. Grimshaw and W. Kenealy

  The Landing of the 89th Infantry Brigade, H.M. Farmar, Sackville Press, n.d.

  With the 29th Division in Gallipoli, Revd O. Creighton, Longmans, Green & Co., 1916

  The History of the Lancashire Fusiliers, 1914–1918, J.C. Latter, Gale & Polden, 1949

  The Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual

  Gallipoli Gazette

  Lancashire HQ, Royal Regt of Fusiliers

  ‘The Landing in Gallipoli’, Maj. R.R. Willis VC, Gallipoli Gazette, July 1934

  Memoir and documents relating to Sgt. A.J. Richards VC (IWM)

  War Diary, 1st Bn Lancashire Fusiliers (PRO)

  The Gallipolian

  Wigan Observer

  Wigan Examiner

  Hull Times

  The Daily Mail

  St Paul’s School, Barnes

  E. Unwin, G.L. Drewry, W. St A. Malleson, A.W. St C. Tisdall, W.C. Williams and G.McK. Samson

  Case of Sub-Lt. A.W. St Clair Tisdall, RNVR (PRO)

  Verses, Letters and Remembrances of Arthur Walderne St Clair Tisdall VC, Sub-Lieutenant RNVR, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1916

  At Antwerp and the Dardanelles, Revd H.C. Foster, Mills & Boon, 1918

  Capt. E. Unwin VC, letters (Capt. H.C. Lockyer collection, IWM)

  Eye-witness accounts of Unwin VC action (PRO)

  H. St A. Malleson

  J. McWilliam (daughter of W. St A. Malleson VC)

  J.P. Macintyre

  The First World War Letters of Lieut G.L. Drewry VC (IWM)

  The Immortal Gamble, A.T. Stewart and Revd C.J.E. Peshall, A & C Black Ltd, 1917

  Chepstow Museum

  Carnousti
e Library

  Asbourne Telegraph

  South Wales Argus

  The Times

  C.H.M. Doughty-Wylie and G.N. Walford

  Doughty-Wylie Papers, The Regimental Museum, Royal Welch Fusiliers

  Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, Vol. 4, D. Ward, 1928

  Lt. Col. G.B. Stoney DSO, (ms, letters, IWM)

  The Landing at V Beach, Gallipoli, Lt. Col. H.E. Tizard (ts, IWM)

  L.O. Doughty-Wylie (letters, diary, IWM)

  Dictionary of National Biography, 1912–1921

  Harrow School archives

  Gallipoli 1915, P. Liddle, Brasseys, 1985

  W. Cosgrove

  War Diary, 1st Bn Royal Munster Fusiliers (PRO)

  The Irish at the Front, M. MacDonagh, Hodder & Stoughton, 1916

  Cork Examiner

  Cork Holly Bough

  The Rangoon Gazette

  W.R. Parker

  Case of Lance-Corporal W.R. Parker, RMLI (PRO)

  The Royal Marines Victoria Crosses, M.G. Little, Royal Marines Museum, n.d.

  Britain’s Sea Soldiers, A History of the Royal Marines, 1914–1919, Gen. Sir H.E. Blumberg, Swiss & Company, 1929

  Royal Marines Museum

  V.C. de Ville (daughter)

  Nottingham Evening Post

  Nottinghamshire Guardian

  E.C. Boyle

  Report of Proceedings of Submarine E14, April 27–May 18, 1915 (RN Submarine Museum)

  Diary of Ldg Seaman J.T. Haskins, DSM (IWM)

  Passage of the Dardanelles by E14, E.G. Stanley, DSC (RN Submarine Museum)

  By Guess and By God, W.G. Carr, Hutchinson, 1930

  M.E. Nasmith

  Some Recollections of Submarine Work in the Sea of Marmora in 1915, M.E. Nasmith (IWM)

  Report of Proceedings of Submarine E11, May 19–June 7, 1915 (IWM)

  Dardanelles Patrol, P. Shankland and A. Hunter, Collins, 1964

  A. Jacka

  Jacka, VC, I. Grant, Macmillan in association with the Australian War Memorial, 1989

  Australian Dictionary of Biography

  The History of the 14th Battalion, AIF, N. Wanliss, Arrow Printery, 1929

  Jacka VC: Australian Hero, R. Macklin, Allen & Unwin, 2006

  Jacka’s Mob, E.J. Rule, Angus & Robertson, 1933

  G.R.D. Moor

  War Diary, 2nd Bn, The Hampshire Regt (PRO)

  RHQ, Royal Hampshire Regt

  History of the Royal Hampshire Regt, Vol II, C.T. Atkinson, Gale & Polden, 1950

  Regimental Journal

  Playing With Strife, Lt. Gen. Sir Philip Neame VC, KBE, CB, DSO, Harrap, 1947

  North Devon Journal

  Braunton Museum

  The Cheltenham Society

  H. James

  Regimental HQ, Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regt

  The Worcestershire Regiment in the Great War, Capt. H. FitzM. Stacke, G.T. Cheshire & Sons, n.d.

  War Diary, 4th Bn Worcestershire Regt (PRO)

  Letters to the Official Historian (PRO)

  The Firm (Regimental Journal)

  The Royal Scots 1914–1919, Maj. J. Ewing, Oliver & Boyd, 1925

  Birmingham Post

  Birmingham Mail

  Birmingham Gazette

  A.H. James (correspondence)

  G.R. O’Sullivan, J. Somers

  Regimental Office, Royal Irish Rangers

  The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in the World War, Sir Frank Fox, Constable, 1928

  War Diary, 1st Bn Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (PRO)

  Letters to the Official Historian (PRO)

  Wimbledon College

  The Guardian, Cloughjordan

  The Tipperary Star

  The Anglo-Celt Cavan

  P.H. Hansen

  Eton College

  Royal Lincolnshire Regt. Museum

  News of the World

  Public Record Office

  History of the Lincolnshire Regt, 1914–1919, Maj.-Gen. C.R. Simpson, Medici Society, 1931

  Diary and papers of Sgt. H.J. Gibbons (IWM)

  The Lincolnshire Chronicle

  W.T. Forshaw

  War Diary, 1/9th Bn Manchester Regt. (PRO)

  The 42nd (East Lancashire) Division 1914–1918, F. Gibbon, Country Life Library, 1920

  Museum of the Manchesters, Ashton-under-Lyne

  Tameside Local Studies Library, Stalybridge

  Furness Museum, Barrow-in-Furness

  The Barrovian

  The Morning Post

  The Ashton Reporter

  D.R. Lauder

  RHQ, The Royal Highland Fusiliers

  War Diary, 1/4th Bn, Royal Scots Fusiliers (PRO)

  History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers 1678–1918, John Buchan, Thos Nelson & Sons, 1925

  T.R. Lauder, V. Lauder

  The 52nd (Lowland) Division 1914–1918, Lt. Col. R.R. Thompson, MC, MacLehose, Jackson & Co., 1923

  Glasgow Herald

  Glasgow Evening News

  Sunday Mail

  F.H. Tubb, A.J. Shout, W.J. Symons, W. Dunstan, A.S. Burton, L.M. Keysor and J. Hamilton

  Diary of Frederick H. Tubb VC (via H. Murray Hamilton)

  The Seventh Battalion, AIF, A. Dean and E.W. Gutteridge, 1933

  Capt. A.J. Shout VC, brief memoir (via A. Staunton), Ferguson & Osborn, n.d.

  The First Battalion, 1914–1919, B.V. Stacey, F.J. Kindon, H.V. Chedgley, 1931

  Randwick to Hargicourt, History of the Third Battalion, AIF, E. Wren, R.G. McDonald, 1935

  No Brains At All, K. Dunstan, Viking, 1990

  Australian Dictionary of Biography

  Ballarat Courier

  Bendigo Advertiser

  Canberra Times

  Euroa Gazette

  The Age

  Melbourne Herald

  Melbourne Argus

  Melbourne Sun

  Reveille

  Mufti

  C.R.G. Bassett

  Taped interview with C.R.G. Bassett VC (Liddle Collection, Leeds University)

  Where the Prize is Highest, G. Bryant, Collins, 1972

  New Zealand VC Winners, J. Sanders

  The New Zealanders at Gallipoli, F. Waite, Whitcombe & Tombs, 1921

  Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story, C.J. Pugsley, 1984

  New Zealand Herald

  F.W.O. Potts

  The Gallipolian

  The London Magazine

  I Was There, Vol. 1, 1914–16, Amalgamated Press, 1938

  The Reading Standard

  The Reading Observer

  The Berkshire Yeomanry Museum

  History of the Berkshire Yeomanry (unpub)

  H.V.H. Throssell

  My Father’s Son, R. Throssell, Mandarin, 1990

  Westralian Cavalry in the War, A.C.N. Olden, Alexander McCubbin, n.d.

  Australian Dictionary of Biography

  The West Australian

  R. Bell Davies

  Flying Logbook of R. Bell Davies VC, DSO (Fleet Air Arm Museum)

  Sailor in the Air, Vice-Admiral R. Bell Davies VC, CB, DSO, AFC, Peter Davies, 1967

  Fights and Flights, Air Commodore C.R. Samson CMG, DSO, AFC, Ernest Benn, 1930

  For Valour: The Air VCs, C. Bowyer, Grub Street Aviation Classics, 1992

  RNAS Wing War Diary (PRO)

  A.V. Smith

  The 42nd East Lancashire Division 1914–1918, F. Gibbon, Country Life Library, 1920

  War Diary, 1/5th Bn East Lancashire Regt (PRO)

  Towneley Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Burnley

  Burnley Express and Advertiser

  Burnley News

  Blackpool Times

  West Lancashire Evening Gazette

  Hertfordshire and the War, n.d.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Ashmead-Bartlett, E. The Uncensored Dardanelles, Hutchinsons, 1928

  Aspinall-Oglander, C.F. Military Operations Gallipoli, Vols 1 and 2, Heinemann, 1929 and 1932

  Bancroft, J.W. Devotion to Duty, Aim High, 1990
>
  Bean, C.E.W. Official History of Australia in the War: The Story of Anzac, Vols 1 and 2, (Third edition, 1934), Angus & Robertson

  Boyle, W.H.D. Gallant Deeds, Gieves, 1919

  Brodie, C.G. Forlorn Hope, Frederick Books, 1915, 1956

  Compton-Hall, R. Submarines and the War at Sea 1914–1918, Macmillan, 1991

  Crook, M.J. The Evolution of the Victoria Cross, Midas Books, 1975

  Gillam, J. Gallipoli Diary (reprint), Strong Oak Press with Tom Donovan Publishing, 1989

  Halpern, P.G. The Keyes Papers 1914–1918, Vol. 1, Navy Records Society, 1972

  Hamilton, Sir Ian. Gallipoli Diary, Vols 1 and 2, 1920, Arnold

  James, R. Rhodes. Gallipoli, Batsford, 1965

  Jameson, W. Submariners V.C. Davies, 1962

  Jerrold, D. The Royal Naval Division, Hutchinsons, 1923

  Liddle, P. Men of Gallipoli, Allen Lane, 1976

  Lisle, Sir B. de. Reminiscences of Sport and War, Eyre & Spottiswoode,1939

  Mackenzie, C. Gallipoli Memories, Cassell, 1929

  Nevinson, H.W. The Dardanelles Campaign, Nisbet, 1918

  Rudenno, V. Gallipoli: Attack from the Sea, Yale University Press, 2008

  Steel, N. The Battlefields of Gallipoli Then and Now, Leo Cooper, 1990

  Stoker, H.G. Straws in the Wind, Herbert Jenkins, 1925

  This England Register of the Victoria Cross, 1981

  Usborne, C.V. Smoke on the Horizon, Hodder & Stoughton, 1933

  Walker, R.W. To What End Did They Die, R.W. Walker Publishing, 1985

  Wester Wemyss, Lady. The Life and Letters of Lord Wester Wemyss, Admiral of the Fleet, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1935

  Wester Wemyss, Lord. The Navy in the Dardanelles Campaign, Hodder & Stoughton, 1924

  Wigmore, L., and Harding, B. They Dared Mightily, Australian War Memorial, 1963

  Williams, W.A. The VCs of Wales and the Welsh Regiments, Bridge Books, 1984

  Heart of the Dragon: The VCs of Wales and the Welsh Regiments 1914–82, Bridge Books, 2008

  Winton, J. The Victoria Cross at Sea, Michael Joseph, 1979

  PLATES

  Robinson in action

  ‘Six VCs Before Breakfast’. An artist’s impression of W Beach landing, showing Capt. Willis, centre, with his walking stick

  Cpl. J.E. Grimshaw Sgt. F.E. Stubbs Capt. C. Bromley

 

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